


Embrace

by watcherofworlds



Series: Whumptober 2019 [31]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Episode: s08e03 Leap of Faith, Gen, Prompt Fill, Reunions, Whumptober, Whumptober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-02
Updated: 2019-11-02
Packaged: 2021-01-16 22:42:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21278936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watcherofworlds/pseuds/watcherofworlds
Summary: Prompt fill for Whumptober Day 31 "Embrace"





	Embrace

“Dad?” Mia asked, her voice small, and trembling, tears still blurring her vision. She recognized him on sight, of course- her mother had kept pictures of him all over the house, and on top of that she had seen him in the “Emerald Archer” documentary, which she’d watched so many times that she’d long since lost track of exactly how many times it had been. But nothing could have prepared her for  _ this _ . Nothing could have prepared her to suddenly find him standing in front of her, seeing him in person for the first time in her entire life.

Unsure of what she should do, Mia glanced around at the other people in the bunker, trying to gauge their reactions. She’d always been good at reading people- according to her mother, that was another thing that made her just like the man standing in front of her now- and right now what she was reading was varying degrees of shock and confusion. She couldn’t see Connor, but William looked like he’d just gotten the world yanked out from underneath him, her father looked shell-shocked, and the people standing behind him- John, Dinah, and Rene, Mia realized after a moment- just looked bewildered.

Mia still didn’t know what to do, but her subconscious took over, moving her body without her input. She took a single, hesitant step forward, and then another, each impact of her foot with the ground jarring her her body like an earthquake. She wasn’t thinking about what she was doing. She only knew that she had to move, and the next thing she knew her father was stepping forward too, and then he was reaching for her, wrapping her up in his embrace.

_ So this it what it feels like _ , Mia thought, being held by her father for the first time in her memory.

“Oh Mia,” he murmured in her ear. “Oh, my baby girl.” His voice shook, which surprised her. In her mind, he’d always been this mythically strong figure, unshaken by anything, but now here he was, weeping as he held her in his arms.

After several impossibly long moments, they pulled apart, her father holding her at arm’s length to study her intently, looking her up and down, tears glimmering in his eyes.

“You’ve grown up,” he said. At any other time, Mia would have made a sarcastic comment about how that was what happened with the passage of time, but she was too overwhelmed with emotion to say much of anything. Besides, if this was the past, the her her father knew was still just a baby.

“And so beautiful,” her father went on. “God, you look just like your mother.” Mia felt fresh tears well up in her eyes at the mention of her mother. She already missed her so much. They’d only just been starting to reconnect when she’d left, and now it was uncertain whether they would ever see each other again. But she forced herself not to think of that right now. Right now, however dire the circumstances that had brought them together may eventually turn out to be, all Mia wanted to do was lose herself in the experience of meeting her father, something she had wished for all her life.


End file.
